Table of contents:
Widely considered among the best American films of the 21st century, social network (2010) is a masterclass in directing, acting and the most remarkable screenwriting that resulted in one of the most unique and indelible viewing experiences of its generation. Which seems almost apt, considering its plot around Facebook, the most influential social platform ever that single-handedly defined the aforementioned generation. And for those unaware, social network It was written by Aaron Sorkin, a screenwriter known for previous scripts such as Some good men (1992) and Futurism as Steve Jobs (2015).
The film at hand is his most famous work. Directions were witnessed by American author David Fincher, who stamped his pins into the project from the very first scene. He has received Best Director nominations across the Board of Awards Associations while leading the actors all the way to widespread fame. And in the current scene, the two featured characters are Mark Zuckerberg and Erica Albright.
Of course, Mark is played by Jesse Eisenberg, and Rooney Mara is played by Erica. They are the only two characters in the exchange. It’s a six-minute scene that took ninety-nine in its entirety to get right, with Fincher setting a camera on Mara and Eisenberg to smooth out the rhythms and overlaps of Sorkin’s language. Thus, everything these actors did was caught. You didn’t lose any moments. Fincher also instructed the extras to speak in a full voice to create a sense of realism for the actors. They were not in a silent place, feeling pressured, and feeling so focused on them. She was in He. She.
script writing
Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin has built a career mainly by mastering the dialogue element. The conversations of his many interesting characters—usually based on poignant or controversial real-life figures—set up a concrete tone out of the gate, providing a certain rhythm to the overall film that stands out as unique to that particular writer. and the resulting flow social network Among the most vivid examples of dynamism in dialogue you’ll hear on the silver screen.
These characters talk on top of each other and, as established in this opening scene, often discuss more than one topic at a time. These are both signs of a solid script, with a close adherence to the story structure featured in every corner of the story’s plot as well. And of course, in terms of the opening scene, it’s the inciting incident: when Erica breaks up with Mark, in other words, it moves the plot. Mark starts blogging.
This sequence goes down as a master lesson in storytelling, with screenwriters, directors, and actors alike studying its content ad nauseam since its release. Regardless of the script, two things must happen in every scene. This same rule applies to sequences that center solely around dialogue, too, with two or more characters speaking at once. At least one of the speakers should converse with the other, usually using another train of thought. This forces the audience to engage in discussions, focusing on two lines of dialogue at once.
But of course, this filmmaking tactic — fast-paced dialogue that instantly brings the viewer into the quirks of the film’s main character — was tough to translate on screen. Whether the actors stumbled on their own words a time or two, got confused by their on-screen counterparts, or simply didn’t live up to Fincher’s expectations, the opening scene of social network It took ninety-nine times to get it right.
Scene photography
Every high-quality movie scene should feature its share of nuances, whether they come down behind the camera or materialize in front of the audience’s eyes. On location in a Massachusetts tavern called The Thirsty Scholar, the scene was filmed in hand with a Red One digital cinema camera, for example, with a set of special photography value. The back-and-forth dialogue sequence lasts nearly six minutes in total, and with the injury-inducing nature of Sorkin’s conversations, it adds up on paper that the scene took a lot of time to meet Fincher’s standards.
Stanley Kubrick infamously shot many of Shelley Duvall’s painstaking shots the shining (1980) when she wields an ax to defend herself from her manic, caged husband. Records go back and forth on the right number, but there too city lights (1931) by Charlie Chaplin. One scene in it was filmed 342 separate times, and it holds the record to this day. Impressive, but perhaps for the wrong reasons.
You might consider all of these efforts worth everyone’s time in the end, considering their celebrity spectacle. But overall, there’s arguably a more solid reason for Fincher to try so many things. Given the nature of the monster, Sorkin’s scenario, the absurd number of shots starts to make sense in the end.
And for the efforts of all through and through, social network It won the Gold Medal for Best Adapted Screenplay, with several other nominations to boot. Not just at the Academy Awards – it’s all over the boards of associations. And honestly, much of the acclaim can probably be attributed to the dynamic and laid-back dialogue of the opening scene, which moves at breakneck speed. It set a tempo for the entire movie, establishing a tone that only blossoms halfway through the film’s surprisingly suspenseful plot. And when the final frame and credits are cut, its overall storytelling style will reverberate for years to come.
